Last fall one of my good friends called me up wanting to know if I was interested in seeing New Kids on the Block (NKOTB) with her and a few of her friends. I was pretty hesitant since I am not a late night, crazy concert going type of person but I was in kind of a rut with being home with my kids so I said yes. At the time my son was about seven months old, had never been left with anyone (including my husband), still nursing every two hours around the clock and refusing most solid foods. I told myself he would be weaned by his first birthday and because it was six months out we would be able to leave him with all sorts of people by then.
Of course my son decided to follow his own schedule. A week before the concert I texted my friend and told her I wasn’t sure if I could go because, get this, my son was still nursing 4 or so times a day and before sleeping and I could not get him to stop. That’s right. My son had back to back colds all winter into late spring and since he would not eat many solid foods or take any form of sippy cup, bottle, straw or regular cup I was not allowed to wean him until he got better to prevent dehydration. It was a long season of sickness for us. We had also only left him one time at night with family and it was only until a little past bed time so I could nurse him late if he refused to sleep.
I decided to bite the bullet and try to go to the concert and it was the best decision I have made in a long time! I really focused on weaning my son the week before and was able to put him down a couple of times without nursing at bed time and my husband had no problems putting him down that night, and the next night as well since I went to my oldest daughter’s high school award ceremony without the little kids. I am pretty sure we are at the very end of nursing and it is very freeing. Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge supporter of breastfeeding, but this is my third kid and I have had a hard time with all three of them. My son was the most difficult of the three and I was very ready to wean him by a year so the extra few months was really wearing on me.
My advice to my fellow worn out, exhausted, over touched but love your kids so much moms is to do something unexpected every once and a while. Reach out to someone new, try a new experience or just get out of your comfort zone for a bit. I had an awesome time at the concert and my kids were so much better behaved after being away from me for a while. I went and I sung my heart out, danced for hours and came home and crashed in bed immediately. I never would have sung and danced like that before I had my kids, and I have been to a lot of concerts. I have always been the shy person that might not even stand up for the entire concert so for me to be loud and not care was a huge change.
There was a magical energy in the arena as if all of the moms (and there were a ton of us) were free of their obligations and for this one night we were young again, dancing and singing our hearts out. NKOTB put on a very professional well laid out concert. Boyz II Men and Paula Abdul opened which was awesome because I had forgotten how much I loved their music.
I am not someone that usually takes photos as concerts because the always turn out terrible but I took a few to show my husband because I missed him. He and I used to go out every few months to concerts when we only had one kid and she was gone every weekend. I really miss that. I miss dating him and having time together where we could talk about real things besides what the kids are doing or how we need to plan our budget for the next whatever time. Now that I am finally able to leave the youngest I fully plan on hanging out with my husband alone in the near future.
So fellow moms, don’t forget to take care of yourself and get out once in a while. I really needed this time out and I am sure many of you do to!
